Monday, August 19, 2019

Welcome to Wines 2019-2020!!


Dear Wines Families,

I hope this message finds you well and ready for the 2019-20 school year! I’ve had an extremely relaxing summer. We spent most of the summer up north with my dad. As many of you know, we lost my mom last February so we decided to simply “move in” with my dad and fill the house with friends and family this summer. Of course, being on Lake Michigan is a pretty easy place to spend a summer! Trish was able to get away for a lot of time as well and while she had to work remotely quite a bit, working remotely from Northport is not a bad option! Our boys are still up there with Grandpa and we’ll have to drag them back to reality eventually. Simply put, it was a great summer for my dad and our entire family.

Staff Changes
This will be an exciting year for many reasons. Not least of which is the fact that we have lots of new faces on our staff.

Lexi Fata joins our Kindergarten team this fall. Many of us know Lexi well as she student taught in Kindergarten last year with Samantha Shanteau and took over during Samantha’s maternity leave. We are so thrilled that she is with us!

We welcome Jennifer Puente who is joining our 4th grade team. Jennifer is an Ann Arbor “lifer” and has spent 20 years in AAPS at Bryant Elementary mainly in 2nd grade. I’ve known Jennifer for many years having first crossed paths in 1995 while I was student teaching at Northside Elementary and she was beginning her career as a Teaching Assistant there.

We welcome Paige Wittman to our growing Kindergarten team. Paige has spent the last four years at Bryant teaching Kindergarten. From the small world department, Lexi spent some of her pre-student teaching time in Paige’s room.

We welcome Alicia Maans who is taking over our K-2 self-contained special education classroom. Alicia previously taught in a similar classroom in our district. Her classroom was closed at the end of last year and with Beth Hospadaruk’s retirement, we were able to find a perfect fit to replace her!

We also welcome Kate Leite to our school half time joining Ms. Brock as special education teacher. Some of our students currently on Ms. Brock’s caseload will transition to having Kate as their case manager. We will be working together in the days to come to make these changes and we will contact families as soon as we have it set up. Kate has served as a Title I teacher in our district for the past few years.

I’m also excited that our strong partnership with U of M continues as we welcome seven student teaching interns. Please welcome Torie Harmon with Samantha Shanteau, Jackie Segel with Derek Toohey, Jennifer Pruss with Shanna Middleton, Carina Huang with Paige Wittman, Lily DiLorenzo with Marcia Gibbs, Lexy Verhil with Anna Milanowski, Gabrielle Amato with Nick Mosher, and Anabell Waterford with Janet Heaton. 

Meet the Teacher Events!
Mark your calendars for our annual Popsicles and Meet the Teacher Events.

• 1st-5th Grades: Tuesday, August 27th at 4:30 PM.
• Kindergarten/Young 5’s: Wednesday, August 28th at 6:30 PM.

Each event will take place on the back playground. Kindergarten/Young 5’s students will also spend time in their classrooms. The 1st-5th grade event is outdoors only. If you are not able to attend the gathering, we will be emailing class assignments on those same days. You can also call school beginning on Thursday, August 29th to inquire about placement.

Bell Schedule
First Bell: 8:53
Second Bell 8:56 (classroom instruction begins)
End of day: 3:59

School Bus Schedules
Please monitor the AAPS website (www.a2schools.org) as bus schedules will be posted likely the week of August 27th. At the conclusion of this letter, I have some annual reminders about traffic. One of the best ways to help with traffic—and thus keep our kids safe—is for students who are assigned to a bus to utilize the bus as often as possible. The first few days on the bus often find delays and schedule snafus. We ask that you are patient as things get sorted out and continue to use the bus.

Snack Policy
The Wines snack policy is that only fruits and vegetables can be brought to school as a snack. This policy aligns our school with state guidelines for healthy foods and also addresses many allergy concerns in our classrooms. So again this year we ask that your child’s snack be only fruit or vegetables. This policy is consistent with numerous other AAPS elementary schools.

Kindergarten/Young 5’s families, please look for communication from your child’s teacher regarding the “Community Snack” that takes place in those classrooms. There may be some minor variations in the policy due to the unique snack system in Kindergarten/Young 5’s.

We realize that some students have special dietary considerations and we will certainly allow for flexibility with this policy to ensure the health and safety for each student. Please note that this policy does not apply to student lunches.

Other Important Dates
In the first day packet, you will receive a calendar with our various events for the school year. However, I do want to point out a few early in the year events so you can have them on your calendars.

• New Family Orientation: Thursday, August 29th (6:00 PM)
• First Day of School: Tuesday, Sept. 3rd. Full Day.
• Opening Day PTO Coffee: Tuesday, Sept. 3rd (9:15 AM)
• Back to School Family Picnic: Thursday, Sept. 5th (6:30 PM)
• Curriculum Night: Tuesday, Sept. 17th (6:30-8:00 PM)

Keep Up To Date with Wines!
We strive to always keep everyone in the loop about what is happening at our school. There are multiple ways to keep up! I will continue to send my weekly “Wednesday Email” and the same information from my emails can be found on my blog at www.winesprincipal.blogspot.com. I will also continue to use Twitter. Twitter users, please follow me @wineselementary (please note @winesprincipal is no longer our Twitter address). Please also follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wineselementary.

Annual Traffic Reminder
I want to repeat my yearly reminder about our parking lot. These reminders are more important than ever as our school reaches capacity with students and cars! The area along the main entrance of the building from the beginning of the sidewalk until the gate is an active drop-off/pick up zone. Please pull as far ahead as possible and stay in your car. Do not park in front of the gate. In the Cooley lot, the area from the end of the gate to the end of the modular building is a similar pick up/drop off zone. There are signs marking these areas. We ask that the Cooley lot continue to be used by Kindergarten/Young 5’s families (and siblings) only. 5th grade parents, although our 5th grade classrooms are in the modular building, your students will still enter school from the front door so please do not use the Cooley lot for pick up and drop off.

At the end of the day, our pick up line often extends along our entry driveway all the way to the soccer fields. Please note that you may not park your car along this driveway for any reason. Please stay in your car and continue to pull ahead (it seems like a long line but if everyone follows the system, it moves pretty fast!).

As a reminder, our school was never designed to accommodate lots of car traffic so please utilize the bus if your child is on a bus route and we always encourage a healthy walk or bike ride to school too! If you are driving to school and wish to park and come in, please make sure you are parked in a designated area. As always, a great option for parking is the Forsythe overflow lot near our Newport entrance where there are always open spots.

We’re Hiring!
Finally, due to the growth of our school, we have expanded our lunch times this year in order to have fewer students on the playground and lunchroom at the same time. As a result, there are more lunch supervisor employment opportunities. The job is flexible (applicants can work one day a week or every day) and we can guarantee two and a half hours or more in some cases. It is a great job for anyone who loves kids, has energy, and has time between approximately 11AM and 1PM. If you are interested or know anyone who might be, please contact me directly. I know many of you have connections with UM students. This is a great job for college students (I worked lunch at Angell Elementary as an undergrad at Michigan). Lunch is also a great volunteer opportunity and I’ll share information on volunteering at lunch as we get closer to school.

Enjoy the final days of summer and we’ll see you soon!

Sincerely,

David DeYoung
Principal